Tournaments

Okay, just a curious question regarding the tourneys and whatnot, but why do these tournaments have to always take place on Pokemon Showdown? I find it fine if there's an alternative tournament for people to join in, however, having the other games like ORAS, X and Y, Black and White, and actually training your pokemon to be competitive it a bit more significant than just making them on Showdown. Tournaments are designed no only to find out who beats who, but people are also given rewards for the hard work they put into for making it to the tournaments.
Think about it for a moment, what are the chances that someone is going to get a perfectly IVed (shiny)Deoyxs in-game without cheats? Showdown, you can make any pokemon completely prefect. But, how many people really put a whole ton of time into breeding a four IVed shiny Umbreon with Curse and Wish in the right nature? Or breeding a prefect Squirtle with Dragon Pulse and Aura Sphere?
I understand internet connection problems and stuff, but maybe that could be fixed with two of the same tourneys, one on Showdown and the other 3DS?

We could have a tourney of hacked pokemon too. That idea is somewhat appealing(an all-out battle).

Just a thought (that, and I really want to test my team in a sort of tourney once I'm finished IV breeding and EV training)

Staff MemberAdministrator

Now, you may notice I am not @KoL. who is in charge of the competitive side here, but I can partially answer some of your questions.

Essentially, your reasoning for why 3DS-based tournaments are more valuable are also the exact reasons we do far fewer of those than Showdown-based tournaments. It takes tons of time, effort, and specialist knowledge to build an in-game competitive team to the standards expected of a competitive player - anything from several hours to dozens, depending on how much competitive training you've done before.

Not all of us want to or even can commit that time. I, for instance, have a full time job - throwing together a team in Showdown takes an hour or so, whereas an in-game team would take me three or four days. That's before practicing, tweaking the team, and working out my strategy. Something that would take an afternoon now takes an entire weekend. That difference in commitment is enough to mean I can't enter the tournaments.

There's also the issue of accessibility - not everyone here, you may be surprised to learn, actually owns any 3DS model and the prerequisite games (which would be ORAS now). Meanwhile, you can play Showdown on basically anything, and for free.

In-game tournaments are amazing - I've done a few, and it's true that seeing Pokémon you've spent hours nurturing battling is more exciting than on Showdown, at least for me. But at the same time, we'd get double the players, if not three times the players, signing up for a Showdown tourney than an in-game one - because it's just easier. As I say, I'm not @KoL, so I stand to be corrected if I'm wrong - but that's my understanding of the situation.

Staff MemberModerator

Pretty much that, except to condense it down to what it all boils down to: Majority rules.

If I'm honest, yes, I would like to see more Wi-Fi tournaments for the reasons you've explained Michi, to the point that the VGC doubles tournament due to take place after the Singles tournament soon to come will definitely be Wi-Fi, since VGC tournaments both online and offline are done via the consoles and doing it on a simulator ruins the feel of it. As it is however, whenever I ask players if they'd prefer Showdown or Wi-Fi when the option is given (which is most of the time,) the vast majority goes for Showdown, and it's as simple as that. The few Wi-Fi tournaments we've had here have suffered from a severe lack of players willing (or able) to compete regardless of how much preparation time I offer or even how few Pokemon are required to actually make a team (the last Wi-Fi tournament was 3vs3 and even that had a low turnout) whereas the Showdown tournaments have been a lot more successful.

Bottom line is, regardless of my own opinion, when it comes to stuff like this I go with what the majority wants, it's not going to please everyone and there's not much that can be done about that.

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